Name something you used to do that today's whippersnappers have never heard of.

[Bertha Venation]

By "whippersnappers" I mean people in their teens and 20s and probably even early 30s.

Here's one:

Do you remember staying by the radio, waiting for your favorite song to come on, so you could try to catch all the lyrics? I even used to switch the channels obsessively, looking for my song again. I had to have those lyrics!

What's yours?

[HereSince1628]

1. multiplication on a sliderule

I was going to say using a reel push mower on the lawn but I thought it would be treated as a typo

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. Turn on a TV

and get a test pattern. Or stay up late enough to see a station sign off the air. Not go shopping on Sunday because nothing was open................

[Duer 157099]

8. Turn on a TV

using a knob on the TV, not a remote control

[NoPasaran]

163. A knob? A KNOB? Look who's all high and mighty!

We had a pair of pliers and it was good enough for us, Rockefeller!

[pacalo]

189. That should have been a DUzy.

[FiveGoodMen]

341. You were lucky!!

We used to D-R-E-A-M of having a pliers.

We had to change the channel with our teeth.

[Throckmorton]

352. We use to dream of having teeth.

We had to change the channel by looking in through a different neighbors window, at night, in the rain, with wolves chasing us.

[ashling]

196. I was thinking about that the other day

I kinda miss changing the channel with the knob 2 knobs: VHF & UHF

[HarveyDarkey]

404. And don't forget the antenna rotor control

N/T

[Bertha Venation]

10. Ah, yes, the sign-off. When we stayed at Grandma's

she'd let us sit on the floor in front of the TV (the big black & white console TV, encased in wood and on wooden legs) and watch TV until sign-off. When she heard the national anthem, she'd come in and send us all to bed.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

80. That was America the Beautiful arranged by Carmen Dragon

I played under him at the University of Kansas Music Camp about 40 years ago. He was a very friendly guy. Everyone was nervous because it was the first week of camp. We perfomed the Finale of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.

&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL8AA54BF8844BD562

[zbdent]

56. Heck, getting up to change the channel or turn it on and off ...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

174. turning the color dial so people were somewhere between pink and green skinned.

and the brightness knob, and the contrast knob, and horizontal roll.

[tclambert]

231. The brightness control never worked. We turned it all the way up,

and everything on TV was still stupid.

[lastlib]

122. ...that Conelrad was a helluva detective!!

and the Indian chief was one of the coolest guys on TV!

[ashling]

201. Getting up at 5:30 on Saturdays

to watch the Indian Chief test pattern before the farm report came on, then Ann Southern, then December Bride, then cartoons

[Scuba]

311. We must have grown up together.

[mwooldri]

357. We had someone a bit prettier...

Before that we had a lot of this:



Not as pretty. And definitely not in colour (405 was only monochrome).

[unc70]

225. You had TV?!!

Remember first TV stations in the state. Remember what was first broadcast on the one we could receive.

Did not get telephones in my area until I was 10.

[geardaddy]

3. Put a playing card on the fender of your bike

with a clothespin to make it sound like a motorcycle.

[hifiguy]

4. Dial a telephone, literally.

Get up and walk over to the (often black-and-white) TV to manually change channels or adjust the volume.

Buy gas for .40/gallon.

[RebelOne]

27. Yup, been there, done that. n/t

[sakabatou]

76. I remember those things

But it was for a color TV and gas was about $1.25 maybe (Bush 1-Clinton years)?

[nadine_mn]

118. hated dialing - I would lose track trying to dial quickly into a radio station

to request my favorite song (it was long distance because I lived in a little town) and with all those numbers I would forget what I was dialing and end up asking some poor confused stranger to play Duran Duran please.

My grandma had mostly touch tone phones, but the one in the spare bedroom I stayed in was a rotary - hated dialing that damn thing.

[IDemo]

183. Work on a telephone "cord board"

[CrispyQ]

188. We lived in the country and had a 'party line.'

Sometimes you'd pick up the phone & could hear someone else's conversation. You'd just hang up & try again a bit later.

[Voice for Peace]

214. we did too, when I was 20

a bunch of hippies living on a little farm in the midst of a
conservative farming community... they listened to all our calls.

[Maeve]

194. Gas wars--where the prices kept going DOWN!!!

Stations fighting to get the customers, never mind the profit....

[unc70]

228. Gas prices of 17.9 to 19.9¢

Some gas pumps were not electric. You hand pumped the gas into a glass container on top of the pump. It had markings to show number of gallons and fractions.

When they stopped pumping, you could see the amount in the bulb, then could release it into the vehicle using gravity.

Note that some of the stations did not have electricity at all.

[randome]

237. Cigarettes were 50 cents at the Clarke Station.

[unc70]

241. A lot less than that, but I was in NC

Penny candy was still a penny and might might be 4-5 pieces at that. First class postage was 2¢, Cokes 5¢.

"Welfare Queens" wore fur stoles instead of talking on iPhones, but they still drive Cadillacs.

Women wore hats, gloves, and sometimes stoles to church or shopping in town. Men routinely wore hats, not just caps.

Almost nothing was air conditioned.

[randome]

244. I can handle no air conditioning fine now.

I turn it on more often for my daughters.

[unc70]

250. You must not live in the South.

Summer in NC without A/C is horrible, even with houses and clothes appropriate as possible.

Can you handle weeks on end with highs around 100 and lows 80-85, limited by dew point (near 100% relative humidity)?

Everything mildews. Towels and washcloths, clothes, the walls of buildings. You best shoes get green furry slim from Sunday to Sunday.

You learn to "sleep Southern", not letting any sweaty part of your body touch any other sweaty part. If lucky enough to have an electric fan, trying to stay in front of it.

[randome]

252. You're right. I'm sure it's worse in other places.

Didn't mean to sound like I thought I was invulnerable.

Even in St. Louis, some days I can't put up with it. It does get bad here, too, though not as bad as in NC.

[unc70]

272. And many places worse than NC

While summer was horrible in eastern NC, we at least had winter, even a little snow now and then (once we got past the hurricanes).

There are many areas between NC and about LA, hot and really humid.

No need to apologize; I have been incredibly hot in St. Louis.

[suninvited]

335. the gas wars were not necessarily good things

it was usually started by a oil company owned store who could afford to sell gas less than cost for a really long time, long enough to put the independent owner out of business and then when they cornered the market they could start making a profit at that store again.

Kind of the same way that WalMart swooped into the small towns and sold things so low for as long as it took to effectively shut down every mom and pop store in the towns.

Selling gas for under cost in most states is now illegal.

[Marie Marie]

336. Dial a phone - yes and it was originally a "Party Line" in our house.

Remember those?

[Old Troop]

409. We had a party line too. The interesting thing is that,

when mom died, I was closing up her house and found that she still had that party line (2003) but no-one else was on it according to the phone company.

[FiveGoodMen]

342. In the laudry room of my house is a working, original equipment, dial telephone from 1962.

[mwooldri]

354. I gotta admit back then the phone number was a hoot.

Dead easy to remember too.

My old phone number was 201.

The phone number changed in 1993 to a 6 digit number - which is normal for a lot of numbers in the UK outside major cities.

[RevStPatrick]

5. I remember going to the record store...

...to buy an album.
I would take the album home, and open the packaging and put the album on the record player.
I would sit in the sweet spot between the speakers, (Dad had a GOOD stereo!) and hold the record, looking at the artwork and lyrics, if they were included, and listen to the entire album from beginning to end.

No TV on at the same time, no comic books or other distractions.
Just sit and listen to the entire album.

Ah! Those were the days!

[zbdent]

16. putting the spindle adapter on the turntable

so that I can play a 45 ...

[rug]

39. Changing the needle.

[sarge43]

44. 78's

Snap, crackle and pop and broke if you looked at them hard.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

143. My folks bought a good stereo and NEVER used it.

In 1964 we got a Zenith color TV in one of those 3 piece consoles with the phonograph on the left, the TV in the middle, and the radio on the right.

My sister and I played our rock'n'roll records on it but the parents never touched it.

I grew up with one ear on the Top 40 rock station and the other ear in the FM Classical station.

When I was a senior in high school I got an Akai reel-to-reel recorder and a component system with a Marantz amp in it (still going strong at age 41).
I did not know any other girls who had component systems.

I wore out two turntables (garrard and the basic AR) and am on my third one.
I wore out one cassette deck and am on my second one.
I have a Denon CD player that is a six-stacker with a cassette for the CDs, circa 1990.
The idiot at the store couldn't understand why anybody would need a six-stacker instead of a single player. Symptom of short attention span America.

[ashling]

211. At Robbie's Records they had booths with turn tables

and you could listen to the record to see if you liked it first

[Neoma]

270. I can still do that.

I'm a whippersnapper too.

[ButterflyBlood]

360. I'm a 20something and I still do that

Records have come back in a big way.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. recording songs off the radio

while my little brother did his best to make noise during EVERY song! took 4 weeks of listening to the top 40 countdown to get a clean copy of Coward of the County.

[SCantiGOP]

64. putting my hand on the back of the radio

-which was warm because of all the glowing vacuum tubes- because grounding it would make a distant station louder and clearer. I lived in SC, but my favorite station was out of Cleveland and it had the 'Beatle Countdown' with Jerry Gee every night at 7 or 8:00.

[zzaapp]

7. Work

[Bertha Venation]

9. Aw, that's rather unkind, zzaapp, and unfair.

[geardaddy]

12. +1

[zzaapp]

13. Bertha, you don't know my kids. LOLOL

[zzaapp]

29. Bertha, it's probably none of my business...but

Your DU name is Bertha Nation. Was that taken from the movie "Birth of a Nation'? If so, I would re-think that.
"Birth of a Nation" was a movie made by DW Griffith praising the Klan (among other things)

just sayin'

[Bertha Venation]

55. A lot of people have questioned me on this.

My name isn't in praise of DW Griffith, or his movie, or the klan, or racism.

It's taken from a play/movie by Harvey Fierstein called "Torch Song Trilogy." It's the name of a drag queen.

That's all.

[zzaapp]

57. oooops, now I get it. Thanks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

171. Pssst...I knew that, actually!

My brother "made me" watch it..I was the only member of the family who stuck by him when he came out.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Listened to radio dramas.

Fastened roller skates to my shoes with a skate key.
Rode streetcars with my mom to go downtown shopping.
Nearly fell out of the back seat of my parents' 1948 Plymouth because the doors opened forward and there were no seat belts.
Fought with my brother in the back of a station wagon all the way to Yellowstone Park (also no seat belts).
Watched for Burma-Shave signs on road trips.

[HeiressofBickworth]

115. I still have a skate key

I keep it on my keyring along with the dog tag of a dear dog who has been dead many, many years, the key to my first home in Germany (a very old-fashioned thing), and my military dog tag (as wife of service member). Oh, yes, I have a few keys on it, too.

[ashling]

215. I have a friend who's

dad kept the key to his old house till the day he died. The house was in Haifa, Palestine, and they were forced out of their home in 1948. He was 3years old.

[pinboy3niner]

147. And a skateboard was a board with a pair of roller skates you nailed onto it

In the early '50s, the back seat of my dad's car was a couple of orange crates to sit on, because there was no back seat.

You'll probably remember Melanie...

[NEOhiodemocrat]

364. In our early 50's Hudson

my "seat" was the back floor board on the right hand side, My sister got to ride up front between my parents, three older teenage brothers on back seat and our dog got the left side of the floorboard next to me. Putting my head on the floor hump used to make me carsick! Oh, the fun or being the youngest of five!

[bluesbassman]

14. Make a scooter or skateboard from a 2x4 and old clamp-on skates.

[rug]

40. With bottlecaps.

[GoCubsGo]

91. Roller skate with clamp-on skates.

I don't think they even make them any more. I know they make the boot kinds still, even though most skaters use the in-line skates.

[zbdent]

15. closing the door of a phone booth ...

[Neoma]

273. They have phone booths at O'Hare airport.

Except it's for people with their cellphones to have privacy.

[Old Troop]

410. Do you remember the really nice wood paneled

ones they had in department stores in big cities? When you closed the door, the light came on and you folded down the little seat?

[zbdent]

17. almost before my time, but ... setting a turntable to 78 rpm so that I could

listen to a few old records I found in our attic ...

[geardaddy]

22. Or to listen to 33s or 45s to make 'em sound like The Chipmunks.

[Ron Obvious]

116. That's what I was going to say

We had hysterics listening to 33 rpm Little Richard songs like Tutti Frutti at 78 rpm.

[cherokeeprogressive]

383. Spinning the turntable BACKWARD in order to hear "turn me on dead man". n/t

[ellisonz]

18. Man, I hope I never get old...

...old people are lame.

[elleng]

65. You'd BETTER hide, e....z!

[ellisonz]

68. *Oww...*

Stop hitting me with your hybrid cane-paddle. This isn't Catholic school!

(we don't have an emoticon that sufficiently expresses the pain I feel)

[crunch60]

279. Well, consider the alternative...

[ellisonz]

377. Either way, old or young...

...someone is going to have to clean up the poop in my pants.

[FiveGoodMen]

345. Well, there's only the one alternative...

[zanana1]

414. You woudn't like the alternative! nt

[kayakjohnny]

19. Used to go up to Rexall Drugs and use one of these.....

http://www.tuberadios.com/eico660/

[hifiguy]

21. Those were so cool!

They're actually sort of collectible now in high-end hifi circles. The indy drugstore in my neighborhood had one too.

[kayakjohnny]

24. Ha! I always thought I'd get zapped by electricity or that my tube would blow up when testing.

Unfounded fear. No glitches.

[geardaddy]

23. I remember those.

[LaurenG]

50. My dad had one of those

he had a side business of TV repair. My brother absconded with all the old tubes still in the boxes after my dad died in 2005.

[unc70]

230. Still have my RCA receiving tube manual

Remember building my first crystal radio, first tube one. Making a microphone from two single-edge razor blades pushed through a shoe box with a piece of pencil "lead" balanced across them.

[onpatrol98]

314. ?

What is that?

[JoeyT]

329. A test machine for

vacuum tubes from when you could still fix a broken TV or radio.

[LNM]

20. Giving a friend a "buck" on my bike.

I don't think my kids know what that means.

[geardaddy]

98. Yes. We'd give seat bucks or

if you were feeling adventurous a handle bar buck.

[LNM]

151. Yep, a handlebar buck

Barefoot!

[WolverineDG]

379. We called those "pumps" nt

[ohiosmith]

25. Deliver newspapers before and after school.

[geardaddy]

28. I delivered the evening Star

Which is now the Star Tribune. The Tribune was the morning paper. I delivered that on the weekends.

[Swede]

26. Walk 10 miles to school,uphill both ways,in 3 feet of snow.

In the summer!

[Arugula Latte]

34. And you didn't complain!

[zbdent]

59. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed,

drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

[potone]

182. Thank you!

That was hilarious, and I needed a laugh.

[Tripper11]

108. Luxury!!!!

[jmowreader]

297. Except for the 10 miles part, I actually did that

St. Maries, Idaho, is in a valley. The town is on the south side of the St. Joe River (highest commercially navigable river in the world), and the school is on the north side of the river.

In the morning you would walk downhill to the bus stop, ride the bus to school, and walk uphill from the bus turnaround to the school building.

In the afternoon you would walk downhill to the bus turnaround, ride the bus back to town, and walk uphill from the bus stop to your house.

[4_TN_TITANS]

30. Since you mention it,

How many of today's 'whipper-snappers' have ever played 'snap the whip', where kids hold hands to form a chain and 'snap' the kids at the end off?

[sadbear]

31. I'm 36, but I'm willing to bet some people just a little younger me....

have never seen one of these:

[zbdent]

58. how about the 8 inch disks?

Let alone the 5.25s ...

[sadbear]

67. That's before my time

[zbdent]

69. I still have the Radio Shack "flyer"/catalogue where, for a mere $8000,

you could get a fully tricked out computer with 64K ram (3 8-inch "floppy" drives + system 16K).

[GoCubsGo]

92. Or, punch cards?

I used them some in grad school, right as they were becoming completely obsolete. But, I remember them mostly from grade school, where we used them Xmas wreaths--something else young whippersnappers will never do:

[Gore1FL]

255. I made one of those in the 5th grade! n/t

[GoCubsGo]

257. Me, too.

We made roses from styrofoam egg cartons, too. And, "stained glass" vases using tissue paper bits that were decoupage-glued on. Such are the joys of grammar school arts and crafts.

[Frustratedlady]

192. We had the tape with holes punched.

I actually learned to read those darned things.

The computer was the size of a refrigerator.

Or the card punches for payroll and inventory.

[Woody Woodpecker]

219. I'm 36 too, and yep, seen the 8 inch diskette

Dad had a data processing company and I loved hanging there.

That was my first introduction to computers...

(Business has long been closed)

[tabbycat31]

102. I am 32 and remember those

[a2liberal]

152. 26 and I used some

Though they were in their waning years I think

[JustAnotherGen]

204. Awesome!

I'm 39 - I remember those.

I tried explains the concept of dial-up to my twelve year old niece two days ago . . . She couldn't believe it.

[Odin2005]

289. I'm 26 and I remember those.

[Diclotican]

333. sadbear

sadbear

I have a lot of them - to my C64 .. BIG, ugly, for the most part imposible to handle... But it worked...

Today I doubt children would reqonize that type of devices - if it is not in any form of museum, and you have to tell them, what it was...

Diclotican

[bongbong]

348. Computers

Still have a few 8 inch floppies laying around.

The oldest computer terminal I ever used was an ancient Teletype (brand) with a 50 baud modem & a paper tape puncher/reader.

I spent many an hour hooked up over a 300 baud modem to do grad school work.

Never used a tube computer, but DID use a transistor-only (no ICs) computer.

Programmed a VAX 11/45 using the front panel switches to load assembly directly into memory.

Still have my Timex Sinclair.

[livetohike]

32. Run out to the huckster's truck to get fresh fruit and vegetables

and bring in the home delivered milk from the insulated box that sat on the front porch. Wait for the doctor as he came on a house call.

[Arugula Latte]

33. Receive tests and homework on purple-inked "ditto" paper.

[rug]

42. And sniff them.

[Arugula Latte]

46. Oh yeah. They were most pungent when they were fresh off the machine and still drying.

[lastlib]

125. Now, THAT's what I call HIGH Technology!!!

[Arugula Latte]

154. Mmm hmmm...

[Woody Woodpecker]

220. The mimeograph was a favorite of mine

when I was in 7th grade... and they haven't gotten around to buying copying machines...

[geardaddy]

99. Yep. I loved those things.

[hay rick]

114. I still occasionally embarrass myself ...

by referring to copies as "mimeographs."

[Arugula Latte]

155. Aw, that's okay, Gramps.

[Blue_Tires]

268. i miss those

i attended a old catholic high school in the early '90s that still had one of those in service

[Odin2005]

291. What's ditto paper?

[Arugula Latte]

310. From retroland.com:

"Kids now-a-days don’t even know what they’re missing with their fancy Xerox and digital copy machines, but students of a bygone era can recall the bluish-purple print and unforgettable aroma of a freshly printed page was a hallmark of school life the Ditto machine era. (Perhaps “Ditto” wasn’t the name your school used; some called it a “spirit duplicator.”)

The process never involved ink, and involved elusive ‘master copies’ that the teacher would keep filed away, far away from the reaching hands of students. The master would be typed on, drawn on, or written upon, and the second sheet was coated with a layer of wax that was impregnated with one of a variety of colors, usually a deep purple since the pigment was cheap, durable and had contrast with the paper. As the paper moved through the printer, the pungent-smelling clear solvent was spread across each sheet by an absorbent wick. When the paper came in contact with the waxed original, it would take just enough of the pigment away to print the image on the sheet as it passed under. Here’s a look at the process:

The ritual of sniffing the paper after it was handed out was a practice carried out in classrooms from coast-to-coast, prompting a reference in the 80s movie classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Unfortunately, we later discovered that the ditto solvents and the aniline (the pigment that made the purple color) are highly toxic. Of course, kids today don’t have to worry about good ol’ ditto paper. After the quick efficiency of Xerox hit copy rooms and secretaries’ offices everywhere, the smelly ditto machines were shown the door. But the memories, especially of that intoxicating smell, linger in the hearts of millions of former students."

[unc70]

378. Mimeograph and ditto/fluid duplicator were different technologies

Your description of the fluid or spirit duplicator is correct, but the video is showing a mimeograph. The fluid duplicator master was still paper, slightly raised indentions made by typewriter or ballpoint pen with only the small amout of pigment from the backing sheet. This limited the number of copies you could reliably make to 50 or maybe 100 if you were careful and skilled.

Mimeograph has a master made by typing on a master sheet and thus removing the way-like substance where the key struck. The mimeograph master is attached tightly around a ink pad like drum. The drum is filled with ink and saturates the pad. Ink fills the places within the master where the wax was removed. This ink is transferred when contact is made with paper fed past the rotating drum. This system could produce thousands of copies from a single master.

Ditto could leave your fingers purple; mimeograph could leave ink on everything in sight. While most teachers and many students could make and use ditto, I remember maybe 3 of us at my school able to mimeograph

[hifiguy]

323. All I ever remember seeing in grade school

and junior high were dittoed worksheets and exams. Sigh.

[FSogol]

35. Semi-private phone lines

My family had one until they broke up Ma Bell. You'd have to pick up the phone, make sure the other family wasn't using it and then dial.

[yellowcanine]

89. Even worse was the "Party Line". Up to 5 families on the same line.

And sometimes you heard different rings as well. So you had to know your ring pattern.

We kids used to pick up the phone real carefully and eavesdrop on the neighbor ladies gossiping. Sometimes we would start giggling and they would yell at us.

Other times you would want to make a phone call and couldn't because the gossips were tying up the phone. Of course no one could call you either. Altogether a pain in the neck.

[Silver Swan]

145. Five families? We had ten on ours.

There were two "ends of the line." We only heard the rings for our end, but both ends used the line.

The rings were one long, one long and one short, two short, three short, and four short.

We could always tell when one elderly woman on our line was listening to our calls, because you could hear her rocking chair creaking!

[graywarrior]

36. Enema parties on acid

No shit.

[rug]

43. No shit?

What the hell kind of enema parties were you having?

[graywarrior]

47. I shit you not

Whacked out loaded enema parties. Weird California friends introduced a bunch of us to it. It didn't last long.

[LaurenG]

52. what a shitty party that had to be.

[graywarrior]

53. One bathroom, too

[zbdent]

61. you really had to have some close friends for that kind of party ...

the pictures alone would be ... odd ...

[graywarrior]

72. We were all seriously crazy

[Manifestor_of_Light]

81. did you bring a roll of toilet paper to a crap game??

Old aggie joke.

[El Supremo]

120. Aggies knew how to use toilet paper?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

133. Don't know.

Haven't gone to Stillwater, OK or College Station, TX, to ask.

[Kaleva]

97. Driving a manual transmission car with the shift lever on the steering column

[geardaddy]

100. Three on the tree?

[GoneOffShore]

130. My first car had one of those.

1959 Chevy BelAir.

[hifiguy]

325. So did mine - 1965 Ford Club Wagon van.

Goofy vehicle but it easilly held the huge bass amp I hauled around in those days (mid-1970s). The throw of the gearshift were about two feet from first to second.

[bongbong]

349. 1975 Ford F-100

Owned one with "three on the tree". I had to bleed the brakes about once every 3 months because of a recurring problem, and learned how to do it by myself (tricky).

[GoCubsGo]

160. How about driving a car with push-button automatic transmission?

It was big in the late 1950s. My dad's '59 Plymouth Belvedere has it.

[unc70]

238. Loved push button.

Drove a 57 Dodge in high school. The Chrysler MoPar transmissions were very good for the time.

If someone were following too close too fast (we were in HS), you could shift into Reverse at 60 mph or whatever, a safety feature prevented the transmission from engaging, but the bright backup lights would freak out whoever was on your bumper. Anyone trying that stunt with other makes of cars might have had some explaining regarding what happened to the transmission of their car.

[absyntheminded]

283. Yes..

Drove a early 60's chrysler/plymouth w/the pushbutton tranny

(That sounds sooo wrong)

[Rainngirl]

359. Whoa!

I learned to drive a stick shift in a gold Chevy Biscayne, on the old airstrip in Kona on the Big Island. Then we drove to where my boyfriend worked and he parked on a hill and said, "now get yourself home." From they day forward, I was an excellent hill parker!!

[Old Troop]

411. I had one of those - a '63 Mercury Comet. Also had a '64 Dodge Dart with

a push button automatic transmission (the buttons were on the dash).

[RedCloud]

37. Drink Root beer kool-aid by the gallon!

[geardaddy]

103. Make your own root beer with the Hires root beer kit

[book lady]

38. xray machines

When I was a child, the children's shoe departments had xray machines. You would put on the new shoes and slide your feet into the machine. You could then see your toes in the xrays...

[yortsed snacilbuper]

109. They had those things in the company store!

[marlakay]

41. Type reports with 5 carbon copies

Attached different colors. Told by boss I can't make one mistake!

[lillypaddle]

79. yeah

mistakes were a bitch!

[hay rick]

113. Snopake correction fluid.

Didn't work so great on carbons though.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

131. Liquid Paper, invented by Michael Nesmith's mother.

Same thing.

[RedCloud]

45. Hit bottle caps with a wooden stick.

Those suckers hurt!

[Yavin4]

48. Write a Program on Key Punch Cards

[lillypaddle]

78. use an adding machine

with a handle, and there was no multiply key, so you had to keep adding zeroes to the number.

[lastlib]

129. DO NOT fold, spindle or mutilate!!

[Bette Noir]

275. Close cover before striking.

[Bertha Venation]

373. When I see your username I think of

Whoa, Black Betty
Bam-a-lam
Black Betty had a child
Bam-a-lam
The damn thing gone wild
Bam-a-lam . . .

[calikid]

157. I punched cards in my first year of college.

At least I think I did, it was Chico State, there was a little partying going on.

[Woody Woodpecker]

222. Knowing Fortran, or Assembly language.

Today's young whippersnappers wouldn't even understand that, or Pascal or BASIC...

[Yavin4]

227. I Took A Pascal Class from Asian Prof with a thick accent

I thought that it was Pascow.

[Woody Woodpecker]

267. My Pascal/Fortran education came from a British instructor

Very nice guy too. He ran the computer magnet program for about two years before moving on. Hell if I can remember his name...

(mostly because I was playing Chip's Challenge on his PC instead of studying Pascal.)

[LaurenG]

49. Crochet

Garden, use a phone book, cook meals from scratch...

[Yavin4]

51. Re Using the phone book

Re-watch the movie, "All the President's Men", and look at how out-dated everything is. When Redford is looking for the head of the Republican party in MN, he flips through phone books to find him.

Today, a two second google search gets that info.

[zbdent]

62. you want a laugh, look at the reel-to-reel drives on the computers on the Death Star

in Star Wars IV

[GoCubsGo]

93. Lots of people still crochet.

Granted, knitting is probably more popular among the younger set.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

106. I have no idea what the young people do as far as needlework.

Quilting is boring; needlepoint is boring. I like sewing and crewel embroidery.
I do know how to knit and crochet but haven't done it since I was a kid --as in 1965, when I learned one summer.

[knitter4democracy]

176. They do all of it.

It's all come back and still going strong.

[tabbycat31]

104. I can't crochet (thought I can knit and want to learn)

But I do cook from scratch all the time.

I'm 32 so probably a "whippersnapper" according to this thread.

[knitter4democracy]

175. Hey, I do all of those still.

I also know some youngsters who do (mostly my own children, but there are others).

It helps to be Midwestern.

[Arugula Latte]

54. Cut out 45s from cereal boxes and play them on a turntable.

[Bertha Venation]

71. I loved those things.

Wow. Thanks for the memory!

[Arugula Latte]

73. Sure!

The one I remember in particular was getting the Archie's "Sugar Sugar" from Super Sugar Crisp.

[Hissyspit]

369. I had that one.

And The Jackson Five off Rice Krinkles (my favorite cereal) or maybe Alpha-Bits.

http://www.bubblegum-music.com/cerealbox

[geardaddy]

101. Totally!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

107. They had those in MAD Magazine too!!

She Lets Me Watch Her Mom and Pop Fight

And Friday night is something wonderful to see
When her dad comes home with only half his check
We split a candy bar, and watch World War Three;
it's got neckin' beat to heck!!

I'm gonna make that gal my steady,
cuz they're at it every night;
I love her, I love her, oh boy how I love her,
Cuz she lets me watch her mom and pop fight.



Truly intellectual.

[Hissyspit]

370. Excellent resource:

http://www.bubblegum-music.com/cerealbox

[Worried senior]

60. All of the above

plus washing my babie's diapers by hand because I didn't have a washing machine and no money to go to the laundromat.

[crunch60]

285. When babysitting and a kid pooped his diapers, had to wash it out in the toilet while flushing,

hang tight to the diaper so it wouldn't go down, then, into the diaper pail, ready for washing. For me, all these duties and babysitting many kids, was my birth control.

[zbdent]

63. Star Wars ...

not Episode IV, just ... "Star Wars" ... the original title.

[elleng]

66. Jean Shepherd!

http://ckuik.com/Jean_Shepherd

[Brother Buzz]

70. Adjust the manual choke on the car

Extra points for explaining what the choke actually did or even what it was connected to.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

83. Adjust the idle screw on the carburetor

Did that on my 1983 RX-7. Mazda had a problem with trannys. This one died at 70,000 miles and I traded it in.

Dad taught me how to check the oil, jump the battery, drain the oil without dropping the screw into the oil pan. check the water, add antifreeze.

Mom taught me how to cook, how to sew (I got three old electric Singers that still work fine), and gardening. Proper names for the plants.

A friend of ours who was my #2 grandmother taught me how to knit and crochet.

[lastlib]

126. Or change the points & condenser....

[oneshooter]

138. You knew how long it took the tires to warm up and loose the little flat spot.

That formed on the bottoms overnight. This was pre-belted and pre-radial.

Oneshooter

[bikebloke]

74. Or sitting in the car till the end of a song.

Who knows when it would come up again.

[GoneOffShore]

132. I sit in the car waiting for the end of NPR programs.

[randome]

256. 'Driveway songs' they call them in England.

The last one I heard described that way was Marzan Mozetich's 'Affairs of the Heart'. It's a great contemporary classical piece!

[panader0]

75. When I was 18 (in '68) I used to hop the freight trains between Salem, Oregon and Seattle

God, it was fun and adventurous. Wait in the trees until the train was moving and run out and throw your pack into the open boxcar and then jump in. Let your legs dangle out the door while the train went through the woods and along rivers and over bridges.
Once in Seattle, my buddies and I would head for the university, and we camped in buildings under construction.
I don't think that kind of thing is possible any more.

[lillypaddle]

77. I used to "neck."

Do whippersnappers know what that means?

Put iodine in baby oil for suntanning.

Remember "kotex belts"? okay, was that too crude?

Lie on my back and deeply inhale one cigarette after another in order to "float." Wow, THAT was good for us.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

159. No, belts to hold pads were horrible.

Combine that with wearing a garter belt with nylon stockings, making sure the garter belt was under the panties, was a real engineering challenge.

Sticky back pads are one of the great inventions of the late 20th century.
i'm not sure when those came on the market.

[Sedona]

190. Ah yes but did you use the thin tissue paper wrapper of a Tampax

to roll a joint?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

232. No, sorry. Missed that fad.

[lillypaddle]

290. You are one sick puppy!

[treestar]

298. Tampons too

Bless the person who invented those. I hated those pads and even the sticky ones!

[crunch60]

287. Necking for hours, by the lake at the boat harbor, full moon, listening to Johnny

Mathis on the radio, in a vw beetle. Lots of steamed windows, but No actual sex. Jeez, I sound like Clinton.lol

[lillypaddle]

288. yeah sure

like we believe "no sex" right?

[crunch60]

304. Cross my heart and hope to die! No "S-I" until I left my home, the RCC, and the country.

I was 21. But what we did in those high school years, was so romantic wasn't it, miss that.

[sinkingfeeling]

82. Type a research paper for college.

[baldguy]

112. Using one of these?

When we got IBM PCs running WordStar, I was in heaven.

[lastlib]

127. I typed my senior thesis....

...100+ pages, four(!) drafts one one a little newer than this! Can't remember the manufacturer or the model, but I DEFINITELY remember the pain!! Soaking my hands in ice water after long sessions. I think that's a big part of why I'm getting arthritis in my fingers now! God, that was insane!

Before I went back to grad school, I spent a whole summer's savings on an IBM Selectric--PCs for me were still a decade away.

Ahh, the memories! (good and bad!) You kids don't know how good you have it today!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

142. I typed too fast for a manual. Besides it hurts.

Took one semester of typing in high school on a dreaded manual and hated it.
That was enough to get me to 40 WPM, so I got faster on mom's IBM.

They didn't make a typewriter I couldn't jam. Eventually they got computer typing test programs that could keep up with me.

My record is 114 words per minute, going back and correcting!!!

[Nay]

245. I was at a yard sale today and a 10-yr-old girl there did not not what a typewriter was - there

was a decent small Underwood for sale - for $45!

[quaker bill]

395. Using a slide rule to calculate lens curves

Kept it at my side well into college because calculators were so expensive. They gave the guys with the slide rules an extra 30 minutes on exams. Key punches, typing term papers on an underwood manual. Tuning the B&W TV with rabbit ears and aluminum foil. Getting my first PC, an original 8088 fully loaded with 32K ram and a 5.25" floppy, upgraded to the amber screen...

Watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan when they first came across the pond....

[krispos42]

413. Where do you plug in the flatscreen?

[yellowcanine]

84. Take the car to the garage to get snow tires installed.

[Magoo48]

396. Change the points and plugs...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

85. I had a red IBM Standard and typed other peoples' papers as well, for money.

The sucker probably weighed 50 pounds, but it produced beautiful work.

My mom had an IBM Executive with variable spacing. The back space clicked and it was in 32nds of an inch. So a W would be wider than an I. I learned to eyeball it.

My dad hauled my IBM into my dorm room when I went off to college in 1972. My roommates looked shocked. OMG, she types her own term papers! She must study!! How awful!! She's serious about college!!

They probably did stupid crap to join a sorority. I had no interest in sororities. No intelligent life, and no boys.

[Scuba]

312. I charged $2 / page to type in college. $4 if I corrected the grammar.

I always had beer money.

[yellowcanine]

86. Paste S&H Green Stamps into a book.

[HooptieWagon]

254. I knew someone would remember S&H Greenstamps!

[Ptah]

87. Super 8 home movies

[Manifestor_of_Light]

105. My childhood was preserved in 16mm COLOR home movies!!

I should be a movie star by now.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

88. Drove a stick shift.

I mean a real one. With a clutch.

On a related subject- fixed my own car.

[GoCubsGo]

94. You'd be surprised at how many of us still drive stick shift.

With a real clutch. Lots of young whippersnappers, too. Including my nephew. I know that for a fact, because he's driving my old truck that has manual transmission.

[Blue_Tires]

269. i do that now...

[taterguy]

90. Pay for porn

[XemaSab]

95. Go in search of a phone booth

after my friend got a page on her pager.

[Politicalboi]

213. A coke run perhaps? LOL!

I know when pagers came out big, you were either a doctor, or a coke dealer. Good ole 1985. How about using a can opener to drink a can of soda. If you went to the beach or drive-in and forgot the can opener, you were screwed. Oh and play outside till the sun went down. Kids today have no idea what real playing is. It's not loading your game and playing.

[Bette Noir]

276. Catching lizards. That was playing.

[Kaleva]

96. My youngest step-son didn't know what a phonograph was.

[underpants]

110. 3 TV stations

if the weather was right we got 4

They were actual TV shows with the talent weeded out but the lack of avenues.

Actually when I was in the Army in the early 90's we had ONE (1) TV station - AFN - I didn't see Seinfeld or The Simpsons until early 1993.

[NoPasaran]

165. When we were stationed in the Azores in the 1960s

All we had was the single AFRTS TV station and it didn't sign on until 5 PM. We would always have the TV on early to make sure it was good and warmed up.

Eventually they started coming on at 8 AM on Saturday mornings to show cartoons. Oh bliss!

[Sedona]

193. "Warming up" the tee vee!

[tnvoter]

111. hopscotch. jacks. and

mudpies. My kids have no idea what a real child's play is.

[nadine_mn]

117. Using the card catalog at the library

Having a set of encyclopedias at home to write my book reports

Having the librarian stamp those cards in the back of library books (or just signing your name on the card and seeing who checked out the book before you)

Self-checkouts and computers at the library aren't as much fun!

[a2liberal]

153. Do they not stamp due dates anymore??

I haven't checked anything out in a few years, but just a few years ago (2009ish), my college library still did that. What do they do instead now?

[tabbycat31]

156. They give you a receipt

Sometimes it comes in handy (bookmark) but others it is simply annoying. And you never know unless you find the damn piece of paper.

[a2liberal]

170. Well, that's just silly

I wonder why... are stamps just too old-fashioned? I don't even see a cost savings printing a bunch of receipts vs. using a stamp.

[cally]

358. librarians were getting carpal tunnel from the stamps

besides the process is all on the computer so the manual date stamp doesn't always match the true records.

[El Supremo]

119. Selecting from only four TV stations.

CBS, NBC, ABC and a local independent that showed kid shows and movies. This was before NET that was only in schools.

[mwooldri]

351. Four? You should be so lucky!

I had 3 in my childhood. On the older black and white TV we could only get two because that was using the old VHF system... you needed UHF to get BBC 2.

Admittedly with a good antenna we could have got London and Southern but my parents just had the antenna for Southern.

[NightWatcher]

121. Rewind the videotape before taking it back to the corner Videorama

Or use a pencil to rewind and tighten a cassette tape.

[aikoaiko]

123. Smoking cigarettes in the official high school student smoking lounge.

Those were the days.

[nadine_mn]

158. I remember having professors in college smoke during the lectures

and having smokers lounges

Something about that haze brings back fond memories

[davsand]

124. I had a stereo with not only a turntable but also an 8 track!!!!

We also used to get totally baked/blasted/bombed/(insert your own old time word for it here) and we'd make party tapes and DATE tapes. Party tapes were exactly as described. Date tapes were music that you'd put on when you got alone with somebody, and the pace had to gradually slow down to the "make out" portion of the tape...

I really AM old!



Laura

[mwdem]

128. Sat in the back of the bus..

at age 6 or 7, living in the South, going downtown to shop with my mom. There were few seats in the front, so being a kid, I sat next to the friendliest looking lady on the bus. My mom was pissed! Btw, this was in Greensboro, N.C. I remember the Woolworth's sit-in. I just didn't see why people treated each other that way.

[El Supremo]

136. Wow. You have the winner here.

All other posts are meaningless.

[mwdem]

137. Didn't want to do that!

But I do remember those days.

[ashling]

216. Was in line at a burger stand

back in the early sixties and the person at the window told the black gentleman in front of us that he would have to go around to the back door to order, so mom took us kids around back, too.

[byronius]

326. Really. That's It.

So cool.

[Odin2005]

292. EPIC WIN!!!

[frogmarch]

134. play "stretch 'em" by throwing knives at

each others bare feet. It was the forerunner to Twister, but with an edge - a sharp one.

[ashling]

217. We called it "mumbly peg"

[frogmarch]

277. I wish we had. I like that name for it

better. I wonder where that name came from. Mumbly peg. Interesting.

I still have a few scars on my feet from my friends aiming poorly. Or maybe they hit where they aimed.

[ashling]

301. As I recall, the idea was to

get as close to the other guy/s foot as possible (without drawing blood) and the first one that flinched lost

Boy were we dumb!

[frogmarch]

305. Yep, same game. And yep,

we were dumb all right. :-D

[cliffordu]

135. Real nylons and garters.

hubba hubba.

[LiberalEsto]

284. The horrible straps

that held sanitary napkins in place.
Before anyone ever heard of tampons.

[oneshooter]

139. Opening a soda, or beer bottle using a "church key".

[LeftofObama]

199. LOL!

I'm 51 years old and never heard it called a "church key" until just last year. We always just called it a "bottle opener".

A friend of mine bought some Coke in the glass bottles and asked me if I would get him the church key. I said "WTF are you talking about?" He had to explain to me what it was. ROFLMAO!

[cherokeeprogressive]

384. My uncle and aunt had pop-top curtains hanging in the doorway leading from the living room.

Damn hippies.

[Brigid]

140. Going to the library to do research for school papers..

And using the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

[begin_within]

141. Play with my Whipper Snapper

I did have one of these.

[Arugula Latte]

166. Don't do that.

You might go blind.

[WillyT]

144. Buy A Four Finger,10 Dollar, Lid...

[hay rick]

169. Us poor folk had to settle for a nickel bag...

[dixiegrrrrl]

172. Good times, good times.

Wonder when they stopped calling them "lids".?

[KBlagburn]

146. Turning in soda bottles for spending money/Picking cotton/Using a party line phone...

and waking up at 5 am in the summer to work the garden and the fields.

[Youngat50]

148. Walk around the neighborhood without a leash on my dog..

We used to be able to hang around in the neighborhood all day with our dogs just running with us. Now there are leash laws.

Being able to look out the window from our beach house and see the ocean...rather than see nothing but a bigger, more expensive house built between our cottage and the dunes.

Freely driving our jeep on the beach...anywhere on the beach.

Playing with "Clackers" and wondering who would be the first kid to have to be taken to the emergency room.

Paying 25 cents for a Dr. Pepper.

Doing homework with a pen, pencil, crayons and paper...and without a computer. Using Encyclopedia Brittanica rather than Wikipedia.

[IcyPeas]

149. soda fountain counters in drug stores and woolworths

where you could get ice cream, soda, sandwiches and stuff like that... the best new york egg creams too

and corner candy and newspaper stores that also had a soda fountain counter. I remember they sold pretzel rods for 2cents.

[IcyPeas]

150. tightening your roller skates with a key

[Odin2005]

294. We had one of those old-fashioned drug stores until 1994.

It closed when the elderly gentleman who owned it died. I was 8 at the time and I was so sad when it closed..

I loved the cream soda.

[unc70]

309. Still have one of those drugstores here

If you ever visit Chapel Hill, you must go to Sutton's Drug. You think you have tiurned the clock about 50 years. The works, even the stools that swivel.

[NYC_SKP]

161. Drive-in theatres....

rebuild an engine...

[dorkulon]

162. Rewind a cassette with a pen/pencil to save batteries on my walkman/boombox.

[Kingofalldems]

164. Seeing weekly serials at the movie theater

And it cost 25 cents to get in.

[crunch60]

303. We went to serials on Saturday, double feature, .12 cents, box of good and plenty

My favorite was "Shena, Queen of the Jungle" Sat. was Mom and Dad's special time alone.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

167. "Play RECORDS."

And yeah, in the trendy, hipster crowd, "vinyl" has a place, but in my youth, we didn;t call it vinyl. We called it "records."

12 inch by 12 inch art on the "record cover"...if you were lucky, posters or postcards or some other kinds of goodies inside...and you would sit and listen to the music and trip on the artwork. Sometimes you'd hear pops and snaps because a diamond needle was physically dragging itself through the vinyl grooves.

These days, my music collection is primarily digital. The "record" days were more fun.

[ellenfl]

264. on, what else, a record player . . . in a box! a portable 45 player. eom

[Pool Hall Ace]

168. Sneaking friends in to the drive-in theater

by hiding them in the trunk of the car.

[RZM]

187. LOL. I remember doing that too. I doubt I would have remembered without your post

[ellenfl]

271. going to the drive-in in the family station wagon in our pjs. eom

[dmrtndl1]

322. my son tried this

problem was the fat kids were the ones hiding and management prosecuted the bunch for trespassing. one even cried and called his drunk mother who made sure everybody knew what trhey did

[Pool Hall Ace]

324. Not a good outcome!

One of my friends tried it once, but the cover was blown when the kids in the trunk started giggling, which turned in to audible laughter. The manager just gave them one of these and told them to leave the premises.

Sheesh, I can't believe what goofuses we were back then.

[hifiguy]

327. I did that a few times.

Getting both the cooler full of beer and a couple buddies into the trunk required some packing skills.

[dixiegrrrrl]

173. Playing outside ALL day long, till dark.

We could and would go anywhere and everywhere on our bikes, the whole day.
no one's parents seemd to mind.
Everyone knew it was time to come home at dusk.
Kids were never hanging around the house on the weekends unless it was raining.d
And the bikes were the only transportation, cause the car was with dad at work.

[randome]

207. Flashlight tag!

[dixiegrrrrl]

242. oh wow...I missed out on that. drats.

[Nay]

246. Yeah! I regularly sound like an old fart when I tell ppl "kids don't do anything anymore except

stare at a damn screen." Mostly because the ppl I'm talking to don't do anything but stare at a screen either.

[dixiegrrrrl]

266. When I was a kid, our screen was in the front door.

" don't slam the screen!"
remember that?

[lunatica]

177. Playing outside with the neighborhood kids

Jumping rope and hopscotch. Pick-up sticks. Hand clapping games. Everyone riding their bikes together. Outdoor stuff that didn't require adult supervision because life was safe back then.

Oh! And having to wear bulky kotex. Ugh!

[Bette Noir]

278. Playing baseball in a friend's back yard, using various fruit trees as the bases.

[Bluzmann57]

178. Used to sit and listen to my dad's shortwave radio.

As well as good ol' am radio. I thought it was fascinating hearing stuff from around the world even if it was the announcement of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

[Art_from_Ark]

179. Saturdays in the summer

Watch cartoons until about 11:00 or so, then go bowl a game or two at the bowling alley (25 cents/game plus 15 cents shoe rental). Then stop off at the dime store to buy a box of Milk Duds or a fruit-filled chocolate bar from Finland (10 cents) to eat at the Saturday matinee (25 cents). After the Saturday matinee, head for the municipal pool for several hours of fun in the sun (25 cents). After that, go home for supper, and then go to the roller rink with a friend (35 cents plus 25 cents skate rental) and skate to tunes like Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, Dizzy, MacArthur Park, Penny Lane, Mony Mony, So Happy Together, Winchester Cathedral, Indian Lake, Laugh Laugh...

[jaded_old_cynic]

180. Watching TV B.C. (Before cable)

NT

[ailsagirl]

181. Sleeping out in the backyard on summer nights

Can't do that anymore-- you'll be sure to get abducted or murdered. Or both.

Sorry to be so negative, but it's the new reality.

[patrice]

185. 1+ wake to the sounds of morning doves overhead.

[ailsagirl]

388. Hope they weren't directly overhead!

We awoke to the sound of Scrub Jays and (Northern) Mockingbirds. Great alarm clocks!

[patrice]

389. he! he! . . . I was thinking yesterday about an edit to that post. You read my mind.

[ailsagirl]

393. Sorry, Patrice

Could not resist!

[TheCruces]

412. Most places you could still do that

Helicopter parenting just makes people think you're sure to get abducted or murdered or both. We're turning into a nation of sissies.

[patrice]

184. Ride saplings in the summer, especially along the banks of a creek. nt

[JonLP24]

186. I've heard of almost all things listed in this thread

Done or saw more than a few things listed here as well.

Only thing I can add to this thread since I'm in my mid-20's so there isn't anything that I've done that another person in their 20's haven't heard of.

[geckosfeet]

191. Take pictures on film with an instamatic using flash cubes!

[lonestarnot]

195. Turning the fucking channel with the needlenose.

[Still Blue in PDX]

407. OMG. I had forgotten about that. We must have had the same TV. nt

[lonestarnot]

416. Those knobs were great weren't they? Especially when the plastic finally wore out.

[slackmaster]

197. When I was seven years old, my mom would give me some change and let me walk alone to the store

About four blocks away, to buy things like bread and milk.

The quarters and dimes were all 90% silver, and nobody called Child Protective Services to report her.

[Sedona]

206. My mom sent me for smokes!

.

[Sedona]

198. CLACKERS!

&feature=player_embedded

[stlsaxman]

200. Trip acid and listen to King Crimson records...

... w-hell- didn't every kid in the early '70's????

[yesphan]

317. Oh yeah !

Actually, still do.

[Sedona]

202. CREEPY CRAWLERS!

I gave myself a few third degree burns with this

[randome]

212. Creepy Crawlers were AWESOME!

I can't say how many shrunken heads I created.

[blaze]

248. Totally forgot about Creepy Crawlers!!

LOVED them!!

[hunter]

385. Glow-in-the-dark-goop. That did it for me.

I knew flying cars were just around the corner...

[randome]

203. I would obsessively tape-record my favorite monster movies.

And then write down the dialog in narrative form.

I now have more than 840 videotapes and a thousand CDs and 500 cassettes that are all useless because I have it all on a hard drive now.

[Rozlee]

320. And the monsters were cheesy.

No special effects to speak of. Godzilla was a guy in a lizard suit, another plant creature wore a blanket covered with leaves and twigs and yet another monster looked like--to quote the ever-snarky Elvira--"Gumby on steroids."

[chknltl]

205. smoking on busses and planes

There were ash treys in the seat arms of busses. They were always in need of cleaning because they would quickly fill with gum, gum wrappers, empty match books and etc. as well as ciggarette butts. These contents rarely mixed well with a still lit ciggarette butt.

[treestar]

299. The smoking sections in restaurants

[wickerwoman]

339. Also cigarette lighters in cars.

I remember I used to love popping them out and then watching the red go out of the coil.

[Blue_In_AK]

208. I used to go to bed with my transistor radio.

Come to think of it, I now go to bed with my iPod. I guess things haven't changed THAT much.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

399. I had a 4 inch cube Sony transistor radio.

The Top 40 station was KILT-AM, the BIG 610. After midnight they played Bill Cosby comedy routines. I heard about Fat Albert the Champion Buck Buck Player, and Weird Harold and HEYYY-HEYYY-HEYYY!!!''

[Blue_In_AK]

401. I listened to KOMA out of Oklahoma City.

Being in Colorado, I could only pick it up late at night, but it was worth staying awake for.

[1monster]

209. S&H Green Stamps, Plaid Stamps, the premiums that came in the boxes of

laundry detergent (nice kitchen towels, glassware, etc.) and when gas stations gave away premiums when you bought their gas instead of buying from the station across the street. How 'bout the toasters or other stuff given away by the banks when you opened an account at their banks.

And speaking of banks! Getting four to seven percent interest on your savings account! (Now I'm lucky to get 0.05 percent interest).

[randome]

210. Horrible Hamilton. Zeroids. Leif Ericsson starship models.

Last edited Sun May 20, 2012, 03:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Pilgrim space station.
Famous Monsters of Filmland.
Jarts.
Glow-in-the-dark Aurora models.
Being able to walk into a grocery store shirtless.
Strange Change Machine.
Smuggling comic books into the house by hiding them under my pants legs.
Quisp. Frankenberry. Count Chocula.
Johny Quest. Spaaace Ghoooost.
Battling Tops (my favorite was always Hurricane Hank).
Drive-in theaters.
Erector Sets.
Tinker Toys.
Lincoln Logs.
Trouble.
Superballs.
Electric, vibrating football.
Collecting bottle caps. (I had a huge box in the basement with thousands.)
Dreaming that we would one day go to the stars.

[mysuzuki2]

218. Being able to go to a public college full time for $120.00 a semester.

[PassingFair]

221. IRONING BOARD...Funny story....My daughter saw an ironing board in my mother-in-law's bedroom.

It was folded up and against the wall.

My daughter asked her what it was.

She said "That's an ironing board, doesn't your mother iron?"

My daughter said "What's IRONING, I thought it was a SURFBOARD".

My mother-in-law never got tired of telling that story.

I really liked her....RIP Merrill, I miss you.

[southernyankeebelle]

235. How cute. I remember when I cooked for my neighbors 3 little girls. She had to come back

to the states for an emgerency. I was babysitting them because their daddy was working. Any way I made mash potatoes. The girls said they didn't like them. I asked why that are just regular mashed potatoes and you can't sccrew them up. Well the one little girl said our momma makes it from a box. Oh your momma makes it out of a box. Well when she comes back you can eat that way but in my home I make everything from scratch.

[Taverner]

223. Tape recording songs off the radio

And doing it by holding the tape recorder next to the radio speaker

[ET Awful]

226. Buying a gallon of root beer from A&W (before they sold it in grocery stores).

You couldn't get it in cans or bottles, just plastic jugs direct from A&W.

The Dairy Queen was right next door in the town I grew up in, so we'd ride over there on our bikes, buy the gallon of root beer, go next door and buy 6 "Dilly Bars" (a round vanilla ice cream bar with a hard shell that came in butterscotch, cherry and chocolate) (which were also pretty cheap at the time, I don't remember the exact price). Then we'd ride home FAST before all the ice cream melted so my little sisters could each have an ice cream bar .

That and buying a tractor size inner tube from the local garage and using it to float down the river .

[Odin2005]

296. Here in Moorhead, MN we have one of the oldest DQs in the country.

It was built in '49, no indoor seating, you eat outside. It's a local landmark and everyone loves eating there.

[hifiguy]

328. There's one of those in Richfield, too.

At 66th and Nicollet. No burgers or anything, just ice cream and the frozen treats. Used to hang out there all summer when I was a kid, drinking "Suicide" Mr. Mistys. Ah, those were the days. Hit the DQ then every drug store we could bike to and check for new comic books. There were no comic shops in those days.

[mysuzuki2]

375. In the 50s there was a DQ at 48th and Nicolet in south Mpls near my house.

small cones were 5 cents, 10 if you wanted it dipped in chocolate. I used to dream about getting ahold of 65 cents so I could buy a banana split.

[99th_Monkey]

229. Walking around town with my new "transistor Radio" up to my ear.

listening to Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Elvis busting loose with
a whole new ecstatic vibration I'd never experienced before..

[southernyankeebelle]

233. I remember being 10 yrs old living in Germany on the military base with my family waiting

for the Long Ranger to come on the radio while my mother was cooking a great Italian meal. Sure miss those days when you used your ears to pay attention. Also remember all the kids going outside and playing soldiers. Back then girls and the boys all played soldiers. Gee we kids had alot of fun.

[tclambert]

234. I used to READ newspapers.

Last edited Mon May 21, 2012, 06:42 AM - Edit history (1)

And they had actual news in them, with carefully checked facts and everything.

[Hula Popper]

236. you used to do.....

I used to have to peel potatoes and fry sourkraut to make pierogi....

[unc70]

239. Winky Dink

Actually drawing on the front glass of your TV, best if you had bought the protective slate and special marker rather than using your Crayola directly on the glass or cabinet.

That was before they started warning us not to sit too close to the television.

[demilib]

240. At the risk of revealing my age...

Use a rotary phone

[randome]

243. Typewriters. Electric typewriters.

[classof56]

265. You're just a youngster!

Our first phone, shortly after WWII ended, was one of those straight shaft desk stands (think they're called) with the speaker thingie on top and the receiver cradle on the side, which when lifted and placed against the ear, got a voice that asked "Number please?". Then the Hello Girl, as phone co. operators were known, did her magic and made the connection. I even recall our family's very first phone number--2526J. Wowie! Mostly I try to forget my kid-hood, but that is forever etched in my brain. Today I'm frustrated because I can't seem to locate my Blue Tooth so I can drive while talking on my cell phone. Sheesh, they times they do change!

Blessings.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

398. That's called a candlestick phone.

When I was a little kid I had a turquoise plastic toy version of a candlestick phone. The dial was gold plastic.

[classof56]

417. Thanks!

Couldn't remember what it was called (happens with age!), but found it listed on e-Bay as a shaft desk phone (I think). We didn't have one of those shiny chrome-plated ones, it was dull black. Interesting about your plastic toy version--when I was a kid, plastic had not been invented. I do recall WWII rationing and blackouts and all kinds of shortages. Thus the candlestick phone we got when I was maybe 10 was a big deal--that and indoor plumbing. Lordy, I'm old!

[dmrtndl1]

247. chase after the truck that was spraying pesticide in the neighborhood to control mosquitoes

[randome]

253. It was like a call to a parade!

[ellenfl]

274. fortunately, my mother would make us get inside when the mosquito sprayers went by.

she was ahead of her time in protecting us from pesticides, x-rays and any other toxin she could. probably paranoia but glad for it.

ellen fl

[Nay]

282. OMG. My brother and I did this in Fla. I'm surprised I'm not dead yet. nt

[grilled onions]

249. The Top 40

WLS radio,Chicago had their top ten survey and each day they would play part or all of those tunes till the last one which was #1 at the time would be played at 6 p.m. It was great for those of us who did not have that record,knowing that at least once every day we got to hear it! They also had their DJ's visit what we called teen clubs(little more then old stores--mainly grocery store size). The stages were little more then a couple tables smacked together at many of these "clubs" and the DJ's would have some silly contest to give away promo 45's or T-shirts. It was all music then. Politics never entered our top 40 radio station. In the late 60's WLS had competition come to town. I can't remember the station but they had a wonderful studio in Marina City Towers that fans could visit and hold up signs that DJ's may or may not announce on the air. It was a fun time. Girls especially would carry a case of 45's to a party or simple get together. We seemed to treasure those 45's. Later when we could afford to advance to albums girls would actually carry them to school(they usually left the LP's at home) but that cover of The Beatles,Stones,Monkees--whatever went with them to their classes. I can remember sitting with several other girls who studied the music/words of artists such as Dylan,Garfunkel and discussed what they thought the songs were about. We wanted a better world and many thought nothing of handing out flowers to anyone who looked like they needed a bit of cheering up in the park. Peace was more then a word in those days.

[blaze]

251. Burning leaves

We had two big sugar maples in the front yard and every fall, Dad would rake the leaves down to the street and set them on fire. That's a smell that always brings back wonderful childhood memories.

[annabanana]

280. But not until after we'd spent some time jumping in them!

I DO miss the smell of burning leaves.

[Locrian]

258. beer

Beer pull tabs:


Radio "push buttons" the kind you pulled out to set the location of the station:

[Coyote_Bandit]

259. Use a footswitch to dim the car lights

I also remember a rural gas war - competing prices of 7 and 9 cents per gallon. We had a gas pump on the farm and we bought all we could at that price to fill our tank. This would have been mid 1960's.

Leaded gasoline. Not today's unleaded ethanol added stuff.

And I remember visiting elderly family members who lived in a very remote area. Electric lines came to their area while I was a small child. One of my earliest memories is treking out to the outhouse in the dark with Mom. Again, mid 1960's.

[randome]

261. I had a foot switch too!

Why didn't they keep that? It seems more user-friendly.

[CottonBear]

386. MY first car, a 1976 Camaro, had a foot switch.

God, I loved that car. It was a metallic brick red with a red and black interior. It had the little tail wing on the trunk lid.

It had a powerful 8 cylinder engine and it used up so much gas that I could watch the fuel level needle move down as I drove!

It was one fast car. I got my first speeding ticket in it. My cousin owned it first. He topped it out at 145 MPH once.

[eppur_se_muova]

260. Set a tape recorder to 1&7/8, 3&3/4, or 7&1/2 ips. Splice a tape to edit it.

My grandfather had a whole pile of old tape recorders -- "portables" of the day -- and he gave me a bunch of them. Wish I'd saved some just for the nostalgia. One was about the size of a book, could play only the small reels which could hold only a few songs, an amazing "compact" for its day.

"Hi-fi" they were not.

We used to play an old Mercury 1 7/8 demo reel -- a real miniature, less than 2" diameter -- at double speed to hear the singers on helium. And after I graduated to a "big" deck -- with 10.5" reels -- I played a lot of songs at half speed (this is a trick used to transcribe jazz solos), just for weird kicks. I especially enjoyed one bari sax solo which ended with a bell note -- played at half speed, it was the closest to hearing a contrabass sax I could get at the time.




ETA: Interesting reads at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel-to-reel_audio_tape_recording and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_tape_sound_recording and

[Harry Monroe]

262. Grass cutting jobs

I had about 6 of them each week in the summer. I used to cut each yard once a week, including my dad's. We used to hustle for money then, doing odd jobs. I never see kids doing this any more.

[Liz_Estrada]

263. what fun!

remembering. . .getting the milk --in glass bottles!-- out of the milkbox where the milkman left it when you weren't home, searching the ditches for pop bottles to trade in for 2 cents each, playing Jarts.

[cyberswede]

281. Winding clocks...

though my kiddos (ages 9 and 11) know all about that activity, I bet most of their peers don't.

We have 2 cuckoo clocks, which we wind by pulling the chains every day, and 2 mantle clocks, which need to be wound with a key every week.

They never quite chime at exactly the same time...which is sort of fun at midnight on New Year's Eve.

[Nay]

286. Ordering toys from the milkman when I had finally cut out enough circles from the paper milk

cartons. I saved and saved, and finally got my dream - 3 white plastic horses, a stallion, mare and foal. I had those horses for many years - I wonder what I did with them?

[chervilant]

293. Great OP!

Here's my short list:

Clean all coal oil lamps, and trim the wicks.

Empty the chamber pot every morning.

Light the tinder box and pull the coffee pot over.

Milk the cow, slop the hogs, and open up the chicken house.

Gather eggs from the hen house.

Churn butter.

Wield a post-hole digger and use a come-along to string barbed wire.

De-horn cows.

Castrate piglets and clip their tusks.

Heft hundred-pound sacks of feed and carry them out to the barn.

Field dress squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, and deer.

Dust sulfur in socks and around waistbands before berry picking.

Carry water up from the 'crick.'

Skinny dip in the river for a bath (only in summer--in winter, we had to use the wash tub in front of the wood stove).

I could go on, but I have to go split wood.

[bigwillq]

295. I used to wait for my fave son to tape it!

LOL

[Shankapotomus]

300. Leaving the house with no phone (nt)

[FiveGoodMen]

347. I still do that.

[Shankapotomus]

355. I hope to again someday (nt)

[svpadgham]

302. Early music piracy.

Hold a tape recorder to the radio speakers during the Top 40 countdown. The tape decks with the dubbing feature were a few years away at the time.

[vanlassie]

306. Buy a Hershey bar for a nickle.

Keep a savings book that the bank would stamp when you made a deposit or withdrawal. Hang the carseat over the back of the seat with big hooks. Bring home pizza in a greasy paper bag.

[Oldtimeralso]

307. Polaroid Cameras

That only took black & white photos that had to be coated after they developed!

[Liberty Belle]

308. Chopping wood for a wood-fired stove.

I actually stayed in a cabin once where we had to cook on a wood stove - took some practice not to burn anything. It had no electricity or running water, either - we pumped our cooking water and bathed in a creek. There was an oil lantern, a bunkhouse for guests to sleep, and a crankup Edison Victrola record player! The place was enchanting.

Now I'm old enough to remember growing up with these things:

Telephones with party lines.
Hand-writing high school essays. By college, I had an old Royal typewriter, then later an electric one.
Believing self-correcting typewriters were a major innovation while on my first job after college. No more white out!
My first home computer had half a meg, with a screen that had amber letters. I wrote a novel on it and sold my first book!
Getting our first color TV just in time to watch Neil Armstrong take that first giant leap for mankind on the moon. Dad was a rocket scientist - what a thrill...
Having three channels - ABC, NBC and CBS - to watch. Everyone saw the same popular shows.
Kids actually spent most after-school time playing outside. Nobody had a computer and computer games weren't invented yet.
Until Pac-Man came along...I remember my brother getting one.
45 records that played single songs with those little disks in the middle to make them work. Then 8-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs, and now DVDs. Seemed like every music player got obsolete in no time.
Hand-crank ice cream makers -- every family had one, and you'd have ice cream socials on hot summer nights; kids would catch fireflies while the grownups made dessert.
Times were so much more innocent - we all walked to school, and kids ran all over the neighborhood - over open fields, down to a lake nearby, ducking through a farmer's corn fields. Nobody worried about wackos out there snatching kids.

[Highway61]

313. In grammer school

Opening up the windows (no screens) with "the pole". Then closing and locking at the end of the day and "pulling" the shades....all had to be even. On warmer days out came the biggest metal fan you ever saw. If you stuck a finger in there while running full speed, damn, you would loose it. No one ever did.

Hoping I got picked to go outside and "clap" the erasers.

Always started the day with a read from the Bible...this was public school.

Then I would run home to turn the antenna towards Philadelphia to watch Bandstand and then turn it back towards New York so my parents wouldn't know I watched it.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

400. Aww, that Bandstand antenna story is cute.

I wasn't allowed to watch "Dark Shadows," but fortunately had a friend who was. There's always a workaround!

[joanbarnes]

315. I loved to climb trees.

[WCGreen]

316. Having to buy porn from that nice lady at the Convenient store on the corner....

[yesphan]

319. Duck and cover drills

in grade school.

[Rose Siding]

318. Getting bread from the Helm's truck

Those big sliding drawers smelled so good.

And, going next door to watch a show on the neighbor's COLOR tv.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

321. Helping my grandmother in Des Moines in the '50's

wash clothes was a half-a-day job. She had a "soap tub" and a "rinse tub" in the basement. We'd run the washed clothes into the rinse tub via a wringer, stir them around with a big wooden stick, run them through the wringer once more, then carry them out to the back yard and hang them on clothes lines.

Had my own little washing machine for doll clothes, too!

[guardian]

330. count change back

Cashiers today would have no clue how much money to give back if the cash register didn't tell them. Instead of counting change back they just dump the money in your hand. Even worse they put the coins on top of the bills so the money slides off.

[Marrah_G]

331. There is way to much to list

Technology since the 70's is advancing so fast that I can't think of many parts of life that are not completely different.

[malthaussen]

332. Have my transistor radio confiscated

... for bringing it to school.

Here is one nobody mentioned: being paid in cash from something called a "payroll department."

-- Mal

[padruig]

334. gotcha beat ...

read a book, a real book, with marbled end papers, deckled page edges

I just picked up a 1934 copy of Walden

no batteries required

[Kip Humphrey]

337. Sending a telegram, leaving the house and cars unlocked all the time, and

getting change back from filling up the car with a $5 bill (gas was ($0.249/gal, the car was a 1952 DeSoto).

[GentryDixon]

338. Eat a Black Cow sucker

on the banks of the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming. Late 50's maybe early 60's. Yum. They were my favorite.

[Richard D]

340. Taking metal roller-skates apart . . .

. . . and nailing them onto a plank of wood to make a skateboard.

[KamaAina]

343. "Whippersnappers" is the precise term we use for members of our youth group

http://www.svilc.org/youthunited.htm

Here, a whippersnapper is defined as anyone younger than the youth coordinator, who is 31. Anyone older than she is a geezer. She alone is the perfect age.

[KamaAina]

344. Dial a phone.

A phone phreak friend showed me how to convert a rotary line to Touch-Tone: reverse the red and green wires.

[suninvited]

346. waiting outside for the milkman

of course when my own children were young I realized that "go outside and wait for the milkman" was just my clever mothers way of getting us out of the house for a while.

[bongbong]

350. Jimmying vending machines

*) getting a dime phone call for a penny by hitting the phone at just the right time (so the coin acceptor would malfunction)

*) holding up the mechanism on slot-type Coke machines that prevented >1 bottle from being vended - then you could take out as many bottles as you wanted

*) using clothes hangers on drop-type vending machines to fish out goodies for free

[Throckmorton]

353. Cars with vent windows

Or the "Blaster Window" as my father called it.

[northoftheborder]

356. REAL mums for corsages at football games. And catching horned toads. (now almost extinct)

[8 track mind]

367. Relax

The horned toad is doing just fine out here in west Texas. We see them allover the place around here

[northoftheborder]

374. I'm really glad to hear that; we used to have them here in central Texas too.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

361. Play marbles!

http://www.landofmarbles.com/marbles-play.html

[FayeKane]

362. aDMIRING MY PUBIC HAIR god damn capslock!

-- faye kane, idiot savant

[Dragonbreathp9d]

363. Vhs

[YOHABLO]

365. Marijuana at Concerts

I remember how we use to be able to smoke at concerts. Not only cigarettes, but people would light up joints and they would pass them around .. not the healthiest idea, no, but we were glad to get one passed our way. Now people just get sloppy drunk

[8 track mind]

366. jump a Huffy Bicycle with a bannana seat and a sissybar

Fuck that hurt....

[Art_from_Ark]

368. In the summer, wait for the mosquito fogger to come along,

then run behind it breathing in that sweet-smelling DDT

[fifthoffive]

371. Fizzies

Tablets (think Alka-Seltzer) that you dropped in water to make flavored carbonated drinks. You had to drink fast before all the carbonation was gone. They tasted terrible, but they substituted for Coke if you couldn't afford the real thing.

[Nay]

382. Tasted terrible? I loved the root beer ones!

[ElbarDee]

372. Rotary telephone

- or picking up the phone and telling the operator what number you want.

"Six Three Eight, Four Two Eight One, please."

[mysuzuki2]

376. Being sent off to the movies with my younger siblings so my parents could fuck.

I saw a lot of movies and grew up in a large family!

[Baitball Blogger]

380. Traveling from point A to point B and freaking out because

there wasn't enough change in my purse to call someone I knew for help with directions.

[SOteric]

381. Writing letters to friends in faraway places.

[CBGLuthier]

387. Splice. Film or Recording Tape. With adhesive tape.

Other than emergencies no one splices film or recording tape very much any more.

[Taverner]

390. A walkman. A VCR. An adding machine.

Want me to continue?

[OxQQme]

391. Ride the trolley from Burbank To downtown LA

Folding newspapers so they would 'fly'. Delivering newspapers on my bike. Two saddlebags full draped over the rear rack. Tossing them onto the front porch of the customer. If I missed I'd get off my bike and place it there. Won a contest to sign up new customers. Winners got to go to The Pike (an amusement park in Long Beach). Pacific Electric trolley from Burbank to LA. Transfer to the RedCar electric rail service to Long Beach.

Smog free San Fernando Valley! Actually, all of So Cal.

Los Angeles without freeways.

Lincoln Logs.

Lionel Trains.

[BlueIris]

392. Friendship bracelets.

We used to make them with special thread every week.

[ailsagirl]

394. The Burma Shave signs!

Broke up long car trips!

[Turbineguy]

397. My brain

Last edited Sun Jun 3, 2012, 02:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Actually, I listened to FM radio when it was still "underground".

[ManyShadesOf]

402. latex free

[HarveyDarkey]

403. Listening to the neighbors on the party line

Imagine, having a phone line all to yourself. Surreal.

[LiberalAndProud]

405. All night drive in movies.

A playground under the big screen for the kiddies. Fun times.

[Still Blue in PDX]

406. Unplugging the TV and plugging it back in again to "fix" it.

Oh, wait . . . we do that with the wireless router when Netflix doesn't connect in the front room.

Okay, I got some.

When the un/plugging didn't work, taking TV tubes to the store to test them.

Adjusting the rabbit ears on top of the TV to get the picture just right. Trying to get back to the couch without the picture going wonky again.

When all the above didn't work, calling a TV repairman instead of just buying a new TV.

Putting colored cellophane on the front of a B&W TV to make it "color."

Calling the reference desk at the big library downtown instead of googling.

Having a 7-digit phone number, and the first two were letters, not numbers. My parents' phone number started with BU9 for Butler-9; then it became 289.

Going to an actual mom 'n' pop store where the owners lived upstairs in that building, and getting a lollipop from the guy at the counter working a big fancy cash register with lots of buttons that wasn't computerized.

Reheating leftovers in the oven.

Messing with a dot matrix printer trying to get the paper aligned and feeding correctly.

[Old Troop]

408. Calling the overseas operator to place a call to my

uncle in Rome. An hour or so later we got a callback from the operator that our "party" was on the line.

[felix_numinous]

415. Shorthand

my dad made me take shorthand and typing in HS in the 70s, I told him I didn't want to be a secretary and he said "Someday you will be typing on your own computer, there's going to be computers everywhere" I asked "Like star trek?" and he told me "No different than that" Somehow he knew this.

The shorthand I used for a couple years taking notes--I can still remember some of it